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Under Blackened Skies - "Faceless Devastation" EP Review

Under Blackened Skies are a five piece metal band that hail from Birmingham, UK. The band have an impressive array of accolades behind them, including playing at Bloodstock 2010, headlining BasementFest 2011 (which they are playing again this year supporting big headlining acts!), featuring in an international magazine, and playing the 02 Academy in Birmingham supporting Road Runner band, Baptized In Blood. They will also be supporting Beholder on the 1st of March 2012, and lastly vocalist Manu Patel provided lead vocals for Daniel Lioneye (HIM's side project) on their 2011 tour of America, Canada and Finland, where they supported Cradle Of Filth (all I must say I'm a big fan of!). So I think it's fair to say this band means businesss and have alot to be proud of!!..You must be intrigued by now as to what the fuss is all about, so I think its time we get down to unveiling their new EP, "Faceless Devastation"...

There are only four tracks on the EP, but fear not as they will satisfy your appetite for destruction..

Opening track, "Bludgeon" has a nice build up that instantly grabs you! With good effects that work well, fast effective riffs and pounding drums, this song has lots of depth and is well produced. Vocalist Manu, has a powerful and brutal voice, it's no wonder he was asked to sing on Daniel Lioneye's (Finnish band HIM's side project) tour! This is a good choice for opening the EP!

"All Sense Of Reason" starts with a melodic riff opening. This is a very fast impressive track that shows they are a powerful force of metal!..With great dual guitars, and talented guitar work throughout! They sure can produce infectiously catchy and extremely heavy sounds!

“Burden Of Truth” has lots of varied vocals, which I always enjoy!..Manu has such a great metal voice!! Again another superb offering of extremely heavy music, which 'truth' be told can't be slated in anyway!

And lastly, “Faceless Devastation” starts with a lovely serene and atmospheric opening, then into superb fast and ferocious riffs. This song will leave you feeling confounded..in a good sense! I think this is my favourite track on the EP, although it is hard to pick!

All songs would be great to witness live..it's not hard to see why they have so much success within the live scene! They are so good live that the crowd simply can't resist going mad and moshing with the band (even going as far to get on stage to mosh with them..true story!!) I suggest you go and experience this masterpiece of metal madness and get your mosh on!!

Even though this isn't a full length release, the band has to impress and sum up their sound in less tracks..they certainly do all they can to prove they are the real deal and can produce professional songs! The EP may be named 'Facless Devastion' but the EP itself is certainly not 'faceless' in the sense that it has heaps of character and the band have a strong identity!..and well in terms of devastation, it would be devastating to not give this band a listen!

I can't say a bad thing about Under Blackened Skies, however they may be the envy of other metal bands as they may lay them to waste with their impressive hard as nails metal!

Brighton punk rockers are back and hitting hard once again with their new video single 'Marco'. They have released a powerful video to accompany the song which was directed by Graham Cullis.

Check out the video for 'Marco' below:

The band states that: "The Message in this video is primarily to promote mental health illness awareness and how we need to cure the mind to help prevent tragedy that often occurs due to ignorance of others dismissing the people that need help."

Although ‘Marco’ was inspired by shootings in the USA such as the Stoneman Douglas High School incident and the YouTube attack in this video shows that gun control is something that needs to be addressed globally. As well as some cases in the US the video also shows footage of the Nairobi mall massacre in Kenya and the aftermath of the Dunblane Primary School in Scotland. SONS are fully behind any campaign aimed at tightening gun laws and making people more responsible with their firearms so th…

On March 1st, Swedish legends IN FLAMES will unleash ther thirteenth studio album, I, The Mask, via Nuclear Blast (worldwide, excl. North America) and Eleven Seven Music (North America). After rave reactions from their fans for the first singles, the band unleashes the first album webisode, in which singer Anders Fridén and guitarist Björn Gelotte discuss the writing and recording process in Los Angeles and why they once again decided to work with multi-grammy-nominated producer Howard Benson. Watch the trailer, here: youtube.com/watch?v=U5yFhH9SArU

In addition, IN FLAMES have announced the first raft of names for their own annual festival, BORGHOLM BRINNER, that is due to take place on the isle of Öland in Sweden on August 2nd and 3rd, 2019. Prog masters OPETH as well as melodeath pioneers AT THE GATES and California's OF MICE AND MEN have confirmed their appearance at the two day festival. IN FLAMES will headline both nights.